Category: Indie Pop

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Jules de Gasperis is a French-American singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer, who initially started his career behind the scenes working with the likes of Ratatat and KUNZITE‘s Mike Stroud and Low Hum. de Gasperis’ latest musical project Edgar Everyone sees the French-American singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer stepping out into the spotlight as a solo artist — with a unique sound, approach and style that he developed through his work as a producer. 

de Gasperis sees Edgar Everyone as a project that will allow him to fully explore himself as a musician and as a human. Last year, I wrote about the Tame Impala-like “Suddenly You Move,” which paired de Gasperis’ yearning vocal and some remarkably well-placed, razor sharp hooks with squiggly synth arpeggios, a relentless and funky motorik groove. The song first conveys the sensation of being lost and yearning for someting and not quite knowing how to get it before building up to a euphoric climax, which conveys the song’s narrator has finally found what he had been seeking for so long.

The French-American artist’s latest single “Align Me” sees him collaborating with New York-born, Los Angeles-based multidisciplinary artist Ash Petti. After relocating to Southern California back in 2020, Petti quickly found her stride as a singer/songwriter rooted in her natural ability to create memorable melodies and captivating lyrics. Her solo recording project Pretty Pistil sees Petti creating a unique sound that plays between the boundaries of number of genres, including alternative pop, indie pop, dream pop and electro R&B that showcases her dreamy and seductive delivery.

de Gasperis and Petti’s collaboration can be traced back to when the French-American artist and producer started working with her as a producer, which included some co-writing sessions for her latest EP Venus Way.

“Align Me” is built around a subtly French touch-like production featuring woozy synth arpeggios, some disco funk guitar paired with skittering beats. Petti’s yearning and ethereal delivery effortlessly darts, dives and floats over the dance floor friendly production like a boxer bobbing and weaving away from their opponent’s punches.

de Gasperis explains the the song’s origins can be traced to when he was playing around with the synth chords that wound up becoming the song. His thought at the time was that Petti’s voice would be a great fit. “Next thing I know, she was super into the idea, and she sent me a voice memo of what became the full melody for the track,” de Gasperis recalls. “It all fit perfectly.”


“I felt extremely connected to the song when Jules showed it to me,” Petti adds. “Once we spoke about his vision for it, I knew with our common spiritual concepts and with our intentions, we were going to create something really lovely and powerful. When I began channeling the lyrics, I started to think about my trust in the universe. Having an inner knowing that we are all connected to something greater, something that is cosmic, brings me comfort and excitement.

“I believe that the source of creation is inside all of us who welcome it in. It’s about recognizing that I have built a healthy relationship with nurturing my creative energy, and also acknowledging that one must act on these creative chances so that they can bring them into fruition,” she adds. “It’s also about bringing recognition to the fact that if you don’t fuel and take care of your creative energy, you can miss out on opportunities as well as stunt your growth in making authentic, meaningful art, and connections.

“I let this knowledge, and passion for a life full of creation align me.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Finland’s Mere Stellar Shares a Sarcastic Examination of Contemporary Dating

Milja Inkeri is a Finnish singer/songwriter, who can trace her career back to 2007: She competed on that year’s Finnish Idol and reached the Top 24. And as a result of growing national attention, her covers series on YouTube amassed over two million organic views between 2006-2007. Inkeri also has had stints in Finnish bands Kailo and Antti Kokkomäki & Tammikuun Lapset. Additionally, she has collaborated with a number of projects both nationally and internationally, including Taiwanese shoegazers The Other and Finnish metal outfit Planeetta 9, along a growing list of others.

Inkeri is the creative mastermind behind the indie pop outfit Mere Stellar. Influenced by Kate Bush, Joanna Newsom and Radiohead, the Finnish artist’s new project sees her playfully meshing experimental electro pop with acoustic elements to create a sound that is at times quirky yet melancholic. The Finnish artist explains that “Mere Stellar is the creation of a free soul, who stopped caring about external rules and authorities of music . . ” and
“started to have fun with music again and speak her true soul’s voice — the pain, the joy, the channeling of healing.” Inkeri adds “Mere Stellar is the manifestation someone who held it inside and listened to others too much, who channels pure love, fun and crazy vibes.”

Inkeri’s latest Mere Stellar single, the recently released, woozy and hook-driven “The Crush Realm” pairs a looped sample of twinkling and arpeggiated keys, skittering beats, industrial clang and clatter with Inkeri’s plaintive and yearning delivery. While sonically seeming to channel a quirky synthesis of Tori Amos, Kate Bush and Kid A-era Radiohead, “The Crush Realm” is a lived-in, bittersweet and desperate examination of contemporary dating culture, in which everyone feels simultaneously desperate to find “the one” or “someone” but tacitly recognizes that everyone feels miserable and disposable. But she does so with a sarcastic, snaky sense of humor.

Directed by the Finnish artist, the accompanying video for “The Crush Realm” captures the desperation, uncertainty and quirky sarcasm at the hear of the song, as it follows Inkeri and a snail around a rather European-looking house.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Aloysius Bell Shares Dreamily Mischievous and Introspective “That Is Me”

Aloysius Bell is the creative alter ego of Winnipeg-born, Montréal-based singer/songwriter and indie pop artist Annick Brémault, a former member of the now defunct Juno Award-winning outfit Chic Gamine. With Chic Gamine, Brémault toured extensively internationally and appeared on A Prairie Home Companion, Vinyl Café, Radio Canada’s Studio 12 and a number of other notable broadcasts. She has also collaborated and performed with an array of artists including Damien Robitaille, Willows, Sala, and David Myles. 

While the project’s name is a nod to male pseudonyms of the Brontë Sisters, the persona is informed by deep and intense soul-searching with the aim to shed light on murky, in-between spaces.

Back in 2019, Brémault stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist with “Mountains” and “Your Heart Is Feathers” songs offered a glimpse into the Canadian artist’s introspective world and showcasing an ethereal, opened-eyed perceptive, imaginative and atmospheric pop language and a minimalist prose style.

Brémault’s long-awaited Aloysius Bell debut EP, the David Plowman-produced Warm Thing is slated for February 2024 release. The EP reportedly sees her blending her distinctive songwriting with pop, R&B and electronic influences with her ethereal delivery being at center of it all.

Warm Thing‘s latest single “That Is Me” is a slow-burning and atmospheric pop song built around fluttering synth arpeggios, Bréamult’s ethereal delivery singing deeply introspective lyrics informed by the deeply lived-in, personal experience, thoughts and feelings of a modern woman maneuvering competing societal norms and roles.

“I wrote this song in late 2021, in my bedroom-turned-studio during a cold snap. I remember looking at the painting on my wall, by the artist Louise Gill, of a woman lying alone on a bed in a dark room and thinking, “That is me,’ right now. I was feeling cozy and nothing could induce me to go out at that point. I remembered the times I’d gone out despite not feeling like it and ended up disappointed. ‘That Is Me’ reimagines myself the way I wish I’d been in my 20s: not wasting my time trying to please other people and instead doing what feels good to me.

This song is about one other thing: rest. I’m trying to get better at it, taking breaks and naps.”

Directed and shot on Super 8 by Montréal-based filmmaker Dominique Montesano and featuring choreography by the artist’s sister Kalliane Brémauult, the video follows Annick Brémault as she returns home, goes up the stairs, gets undressed and gets into her bed.

“I started putting out music with this project in 2019. Those songs were the result of a tumultuous time, so they have an intense kind of energy to me. The pandemic gave me a breather and what I wrote in that period feels a bit more relaxed and less fraught,” the Montréal-based artist continues. She goes on to add that the song — and its accompanying video — showcases a lot of bedroom imagery, since it was written and partially produced in her bedroom.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: People Museum Share Mournful “Relic”

New Orleans-based JOVM mainstays People Museum — currently co-founders Claire Givens (vocals), Jeremy Phipps (trombone), Aaron Boudreaux (drums, keys) and Charles Lumar II (bass, tuba) — have established a sound that draws from pop music and the rich and lush musical and cultural roots of their hometown.

Additionally, each of the members of People Museum has an eclectic upbringing that informs their fresh take on electro pop:

  • Claire Givens grew up in the woods of North Louisiana and has a background in choral and sacred music.

  • Aaron Boudreaux grew up in Acadia and has spent the better part of a decade as a film composer with Maere Studios for a decade while touring the world as a member of a Grammy-nominated French Creole band. While touring with Tamino earlier this year, he was approached to write songs and score an upcoming film with acclaimed studio A24.

  • Jeremy Phipps has been a New Orleans brass band staple since he was a kid, and Charles Lumar II have toured as a member of Solange‘s backing band for years.

Sonically, the JOVM mainstays work has ranged from haunting to joyfully cathartic and dance floor friendly and rooted in a sound that meshes electro pop soundscapes with ethereal vocals and New Orleans brass.

People Museum’s long-awaited sophomore album Relic was released earlier this month. Thematically, the album sees the band exploring and unpacking their growing anxieties about climate change and preservation, the sense of communion rooted in their hometown’s deep cultural history, family and aging among others. Fittingly, the album is a poignant love letter to their hometown. And while the majority of the album focuses on the external relationships with our environment and others, at points the album does turn inward.

The album’s latest single, album title track “Relic” is a slow-burning and meditative ballad featuring a mournful reverb-soaked horn line, a steady yet forceful backbeat, fluttering and arpeggiated synths and buzzing and wobbling bass synths paired with Givens plaintive and ethereal delivery. Sonically bringing SoftSpot and KINLAW to mind, “Relic” according to the JOVM mainstays tells the bittersweet story of two lovers, who are consciously parting ways, but cherishing the memories they’ve shared while acknowledging that there’s a happier version of themselves to discover beyond the relationship. The sentiment also manages to mirror their relationship and kinship with their hometown: After being forced to evacuate during the storms, they still felt an unwavering loyalty and devotion, which the band’s Claire Givens has described as “If I can’t go back. I will be forever be imprinted with the life I lived here.” Certainly, as a native New Yorker, I can understand and empathize with that deeply.

Directed by Nicholas Ashe Bateman and conceptualized by Bateman and People Museum’s Givens, the accompanying video features the band’s members bathed in golden light with what appears to be moonlight glistening on water behind them.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Pastel Room Shares a Nostalgic and Hook Driven Bop

Led by frontman and creative mastermind James Gass, Kelowna, BC-based outfit Pastel Room was formed earlier this year, and quickly established an indie pop sound that nods at psych pop that’s influenced by Supertramp, The Beatles, Tame Impala and The Weeknd among others.

The Kelowna-based debut single “Lights Go Down” strikes me as a mischievously anachronistic and nostalgic take on pop with the song featuring nods at 70s rock, funk and psych pop rooted in deliberate attention to craftsmanship and catchy hooks paired with glistening synths, disco-inspired bass and Gass’ yearning delivery.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Montréal-based experimental pop outfit Raveen — founding members vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Eric Seguin, producer and musician Stokley Diamantis, along with drummer Peter Colantonio — can trace their origins back to 2013: The band’s founding members started the project after attending a Mount Kimbie show together at Montréal’s Société des Arts Technologiques (S.A.T.). In 2014, Peter Colantonio joined the project and finalized its lineup.

The trio spent the next handful of years playing shows in Montréal, Toronto, New York and several other cities while crafting and honing the material that would eventually comprise their full-length debut, 2017’s Always.

After sets at Montréal’s Festival International de Jazz, POP Montréal, the PHI Centre and the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, Diamantis was forced to return to the States, derailing the recording of their sophomore album. The remaining members adapted, collaborating with Gayance on her Polaris Music Prize shortlisted album Mascarade and hip-hop duo THe LYONZ. Seguin also played solo versions of Raveen’s live set while opening for Ghostly Kisses.

Understandably, the pandemic kept the project’s members separated by the US-Canada border for years — until recently. The trio went into the studio with BRAIDS‘ Austin Tufts to complete work on material that will be released over the course of the rest of this year and 2024. Along with collaborations with Nick Henriques, Lost Prince and others, the trio are relentlessly seeking ew and original ways to blend electronic music influences with vocal-performance-driven songs with feeling.

The trio’s latest single, and first in some time, the sublime “In The Middle” is a lush and atmospheric song built around glistening Rhodes, gently padded jazz soul-like drumming paired with Seguin’s plaintive and ethereal falsetto. Sonically resembling a synthesis of Cloud Castle Lake, Radiohead, Jeff Buckley and others, the song is an expression of the longing, yearning, confusion and regret that comes from love — and naturally, relationships –being confusing and uneasy.

“This song tries to provide a snapshot of the emotions we feel in those moments when love and growth fight for dominance in our lives,” the members of Raveen explain.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Georgia Reed Shares Atmospheric and Anthemic “Haunted”

Georgia Reed is an Aussie-born, London-based singer/songwriter and pop artist, who relocated to the UK back in 2019. After relocating to the UK, Reed spent the next fiver years, making a home for herself and carving a niche as a songwriter with a penchant for dark, moody material paired with cryptic storytelling. Speaking on her decision to relocate, Reed says “’I’d always been influenced by UK bands and artists. It played a really big part for me.”

Reed’s latest single “Haunted” is her first bit of new material since her relocation to the UK, and is the first of four singles slated for release over the next handful of months to build up buzz for her long-awaited debut EP scheduled for release next March. “Haunted” pairs a relentlessly driving rhythm section punctuated with dramatic drumming with phased-out synths and Reed’s smoky and dramatic vocal. The result is a hook driven anthem that sounds as though it could be inspired by Stevie Nicks‘ early 80s output with nods to much more contemporary fare, like Lana Del Rey and others while being rooted in lived-in, deeply personal experience: in this song’s case, that feeling of suddenly having the rug pulled out from under you.

“I wrote ‘Haunted’ many years ago, at a time when my whole life had changed suddenly,” Reed says. “I would play it acoustically at shows, but It wasn’t until we started recording it that I realised it was probably my favourite song I’ve ever written.” 

women who kick ass by William Ruben Helms

VIdeo Interview: Le Couleur’s Steeven Chouinard

Montréal-based pop outfit and JOVM mainstays Le Couleur — currently founding members Laurence Giroux-Do (vocals), Patrick Gosselin (bass) and Steeven Chouinard (drums) along with newest members Phillipe Beaudin (percussion, synths), Jean-Cimon Tellier (guitar) and Louis-Joseph Cliche (synths, vocals) — debuted over a decade ago with 2013’s Voyage Love EP. And since then, the Canadian outfit has released 2015’s Dolce Désir EP, their critically applauded full-length debut, 2016’s P.O.P. and 2020’s Concorde, which have seen them plumb the depths of human desire, while firmly establishing a glittery and vintage-inspired electro pop sound that draws from a variety of influences including 70s erotica, psychedelia, disco, yéyé and French chanson.

Their long-awaited third album Comme dans un penthouse was released earlier this year through Lisbon Lux Records. The album is a concept album that sees Le Couleur revisiting a past album character: Barbara, the assistant, who stole her former employer’s fortune on 2016’s P.O.P. Giroux-Do was drawn back to Barbara when upon returning from the Montréal-based outfit’s most recent UK tour, she began feeling that her life was “flat, beige and pointless” and developed a “fear of falling into a routine,” while Barbara’s “search for novelty, new feelings, an addiction” was roughly the opposite. 

Over the past year or so I’ve managed to write about the following album singles:

  • “Sentiments nouveaux,” a sleek, slickly produced bop that to my ears sounded like a synthesis of Tame Impala, VEGA Intl. Night School-era Neon Indian and Nu Shooz.

  • “Autobahn,” a song fittingly built around a relentless Krautwerk-like motorik pulse, glistening synth arpeggios and the Montréal-based outfit’s penchant for crafting razor sharp, catchy hooks paired with Laurence Giroux-Do’s ethereal and sultry delivery.

  • “À la rencontre de Barbara,” another glittery, disco and electro pop-inspired track that features glistening Giorgio Moroder-like synth oscillations, squiggling Nile Rodgers-like funk guitar, tight four-on-the-floor, and a relentless motorik-like pulse. But underneath the disco vibes is a tension that’s sultry, unnerving and irresistible while simultaneously nodding at classic spy thriller soundtracks and French chanson — thanks in part to a guest spot from Choses Sauvages‘ Standard Emmanuel. 

  • “Addiction,” which continued a remarkable run of fun, glittery disco-tinged material that saw the Montrealers pairing a sinuous bass line with glistening bursts of keys, squiggling funk guitar and Laurence Giroux-Do’s ethereal and yearning vocals with catchy hooks. To my ears, “Addiction wouldn’t sound out of place on Roxy Music’s Avalon, Duran Duran’s self-titled debut or Rio. 

So with JOVM, I’m always up for experimentation and using different tech and apps. On Monday, I had a Zoom call with Le Couleur’s Steeven Chouinard. The conversation was illuminating, fun and wide-ranging. And in this nearly 40 minute interview, we chatted extensively about one of my favorite cities in the entire world, from where you should go to get a sense of the town and its locals, if it was your first time in the French Canadian city, to our favorite poutine shops, the city’s incredible Francophone and Anglophone music scenes and acts that Chouinard thinks should get more love. We also talked about their new album, Comme dans un penthouse, one of my favorite albums released this year and how it fits into their growing catalog and more.

The Montréal-based JOVM mainstays will be playing a free, album release show at The Sultan Room on November 29, 2023. Fellow Montreal pop artist and JOVM mainstay Ormiston will be opening. It’ll be a fun night of dance floor friendly hooks and grooves.

women who kick ass by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Enitu and Yul Tackle a Beloved and Iconic 70’s French Hit

Enitu and Yul is an emerging French electro pop duo that features two accomplished artists:

Enitu is a vocalist, who grew up in a musical home. Her father was a musician. With his encouragement, she began singing before she could speak. When she turned 11, she began studying at the conservatory and joined her first choir. By the time she turned 13, she joined her high school choir. She went on to study at Sorbonne Université, where she performed with he choir and orchestra, with which performed classical music in France and in Abu Dhabi.

Around the same time, she began to regular attend open mics across Paris and played with several bands, including one with her father. Last year, she began collaborating with French musician, sound designer and DJ Yul — and she’s working on her Yul-produced full-length, solo debut.

Yul is a musician, sound designer and DJ, who has created music for movies, theater and art installations. Back in 2004, he founded Résiste, which produces radio dramas, sound post-production, creates websites and manages artists. But in 2016, the company began releasing original material –including under his own name and with Toxiq, an act that saw him collaborating with Claire Deligny and Manuel Roland.

The pair’s latest single, sees them tackling France Gall‘s beloved and iconic, 1977 hit song “Si Maman Si.” The original is built around a Burt Bacharach-meets-70s Elton John-like arrangement of twinkling piano and soaring strings paired with Gall’s plaintive delivery. The Enitu and Yul cover subtly modernizes the song while retaining the original’s feel and spirit: Piano and strings are replaced with twinkling synths and thumping beats, while Enitu’s melody manages to bear an uncanny resemblance to Gall’s. It’s French chanson — but for those heartbroken souls crying in the corner of the club, desperate to go home.

singer/songwriters by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Fabien Gravillon Shares Breezy Pop Confection “Je t’attends”

Fabien Gravillon is a Paris-born singer/songwriter, pop artist and actor, who may be best known in France for starring in the smash-hit soap opera Plus belle la vie. As a singer/songwriter and pop artist, Gravillon has specialized in a sound that draws from Zouk, Kizomba and Afro pop.

After the release of his debut album through Because Music, Gravillon went to Los Angeles and appeared in several videos by internationally acclaimed artists including Macklemore and  Patrick Stump‘s “Summer Days,” Collapsing Scenery and others. He also participated in several projects filmed at Fox Studios in Hollywood and for The Jim Henson Company.

Gravillon’s latest single “Je t’atends” is a slickly produced bit of hook-driven pop that meshes elements of reggaeton and chanson in a way that’s crowd-pleasing and accessible. Much like his previously released material, “Je t’attends” is an earnest plea of devotion to a lover that feels and sounds sweetly old-fashioned.

Directed by Roger Artola and Griffit Vision, the accompanying video for “Je t’attends” was shot on a gloriously summer day in Los Angeles and tells a classic tale of deception, cheating and devotion.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: San Francisco’s LYV Shares Atmospheric “Haunted”

LYV is an emerging San Francisco-based, Mexican-American singer/songwriterand marketing manager at EMPIRE. The emerging San Francisco-based artist comes from an R&B and gospel background — but she has writing and co-writing credits for artists across a variety of genres.

Over the past year, LYV has been steady releasing new material, including her latest single, the slow-burning and sultry “Haunted,” which pairs her sultry pop starlet vocal with an atmospheric, Quiet Storm-inspired production featuring skittering trap-like beats, ethereal synths. But at its core is an earnest expression of yearning and desire.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: TANSU Shares Bittersweet Ballad “Easy Love”

Deriving her artist name from a Turkish term for the sun’s radiant touch on ocean waters just before sunrise, the emerging pop artist TANSU has a diverse and global cultural background with roots in Turkey and Ireland. She spent her formative years in London and Connecticut, had a stint in Boston for college, and has called NYC home for the past 13 years. 

During that period, TANSU has carefully balanced her life between music and fashion, which she personally defines as performing arts. While working in fashion PR, she lent her vocals to numerous projects as a session and featured vocalist, most recently releasing The Wash Up EP co-produced with Lars Viola. She also performs extensively around both lower and Manhattan, including a monthly residency at Lafolia Restaurant, every first Thursday.

Back in 2015, the emerging pop artist reconnected with American Authors‘ Dave Rublin, a college acquaintance. Since then, they’ve been writing and recording music together, which has included sleek and slickly produced “DOWNTOWN,” and simmering soul-pop ballad “Got 2 Me.”

The New York-based artist’s latest single “Easy Love” continues a run of sleek, slickly produced 90s and 2000s-inspired R&B built around a minimalist yet percussive production featuring glistening synths paired with her effortlessly soulful vocal expressing a bittersweet and heartbroken farewell to a relationship.

“’Easy Love’ is a soft goodbye,” TANSU explains. “It is a song about letting go of a friend while respecting the life and beauty the relationship once shared. A loving tribute to someone you can no longer be there for, the song helps us all tell our former friends to take it easy, love.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Binoy Shares Slickly Produced Ode to Queer Hookup Culture

Binoy is a Kenyan-born, Indian-Sri Lankan singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who uses his songwriting to authentically pinpoint and express his experiences and feelings as a queer person of color. Inspired by Taylor Swift, Troye Sivan and MIKA, Binoy proudly incorporates his Indian and Sri-Lankan roots and East African upbringing into his sound and approach.

The Kenyan-born artist’s latest single “BoysBoysBoys” is a slickly produced, club banger built around skittering reggaeton beats, African and Indian subcontinent-inspired polyrhythm, glistening and wobbling synth arpeggios paired with Binoy’s sultry, come-hither delivery and some remarkably catchy hooks. The song captures and evokes the excitement, thrill, chaos and occasional danger of queer hookup culture with a lived-in familiarity and specificity.